Attack of teh Jellyfish

Another power station was shut down by jellyfish today amid claims that climate change is causing a population surge among the species.

Swarm: Hundreds of jellyfish blocked the water-supply grills at the Hadera plant

I could not resist the headline and lede above — especially when I saw it was from the UK’s Daily Mail, normally a hotbed [cold bed?] of climate denial. This story, however, takes a much different turn:

A huge swarm clogged up the Orot Rabin plant in Hadera, Israel, a day after the Torness nuclear facility in Scotland was closed in a similar incident.

Hadera ran into trouble when jellyfish blocked its seawater supply, which it uses for cooling purposes, forcing officials to use diggers to remove them.

Scientists say the number of jellyfish are on the rise thanks to the increasing acidity of the world’s oceans driving away the blubbery creatures’ natural predators.

The warning came in a report into ocean acidification – an often overlooked side effect of burning fossil fuel.

Studies have shown that higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere doesn’t just trigger climate change but can make the oceans more acidic.

Since the start of the industrial revolution, acidity levels of the oceans have gone up 30 per cent, marine biologists say.

Last year, a Nature Geoscience study found our oceans are acidifying 10 times faster today than 55 million years ago when a mass extinction of marine species occurred. Also, last year the Geological Society reported that acidifying oceans spell marine biological meltdown “by end of century.”

The report, published in December 2010 by the UN Environment Programme, warns that the acidification of oceans makes it harder for coral reefs and shellfish to form skeletons – threatening larger creatures that depend on them for food.

The decline in creatures with shells could trigger an explosion in jellyfish populations.

The report, written by Dr Carol Turley of Plymouth University, said: ‘Ocean acidification has also been tentatively linked to increased jellyfish numbers and changes in fish abundance.’

Jellyfish are immune to the effects of acidification. As other species decline, jellyfish will move in to fill the ecological niche.

Populations have boomed in the Mediterranean in recent years. Some marine scientists say the changing chemistry of the sea is to blame.

The evidence available from our study, however, suggests that projected climate change, including reducing ocean pH, may increase the frequency, and thus influence, of gelatinous predators in the North Sea over the next 100 yr.